The First Fire, A Mockingjay Alternate Ending
by Citali
Summary: Also known as The First Fire by RawrItsMyChocolate - she published for me before I got my account.    Gale belongs to Katniss.  Katniss belongs to Gale.  Anything else is unthinkable.  For anyone else who was unsatisfied at the real ending.


Alternate Ending to _The Hunger Games_: This is what would have happened if Katniss was standing farther away when the bombs blew up.

As I'm crossing the threshold of Snow's mansion, the smell hits me. The smell of sickly sweet roses, mingled with the stench of blood. But it does not manage to bring me to my knees this time, not even scare me in the slightest. Because I know this is the end. Either I kill Snow or I die. And dying doesn't seem so horrible now that I've lost all I want to live for. Gale's captured. Peeta's insane. The image of the explosion that was Prim's death is forever burned into the backs of my eyelids. Silent tears are rolling down my face, but I don't make a sound. I don't want Snow to know he's broken me.

While I follow the path of the hall, my feet sinking into the bloodred carpet, I wonder why no one's stopped me. Perhaps because he is waiting for me. After all the trouble I caused, he'll want to kill me himself. Maybe he'll even have guards there, to hold me still while he fires a bullet into my heart. Or maybe I'll be tortured first. Even a public execution. The death of the Mockingjay.

But it doesn't mean I'll go down without a fight.

Resolved to my mission, I strip off Tigris' furs and the ridiculously curly Capitol wig. Underneath was my Mockingjay suit. The one Cinna had made, the one that had come with a note saying, "_I'm still betting on you._"

I smile a little at the memory of Cinna, who made me into the girl on fire. Literally. Cinna, who they dragged away bloody just before I entered the Quarter Quell…

My half-smile is gone, replaced by a grimace as I think of Rue as well and hum her four-note song, as her death replays in my head. Rue and Prim. They should still be alive.

And Gale. What will they do to him? They won't kill him, not right away at least. They will torture him first.

I failed to kill him. I failed to shoot that arrow.

But what if I had? I wondered what would happen to me if Gale died. I think I would shatter. Not just break, like I did for Peeta. Shatter, into a thousand razor-sharp shards that speak of pain and nothing else. It would be the last blow to me, enough to drive me insane. I just lost Prim. I can't lose Gale too…

I pull out my Mockingjay bow and load it with a single arrow, which I hope will find its home in Snow's heart. With one blow, I can save Gale Hawthorne and Panem at once.

I wipe my eyes so I will be able to see more clearly, and my hands come away streaked with blood and grime. The cut on my face that I received when I jumped in front of Gale back in district 12 has reopened, and is bleeding freely. I pull a piece of shrapnel out of my cheek.

That was the day I asked him to run away with me. None of this would have happened if we had decided to run. But then, if we had, we wouldn't have been the Katniss and Gale I know.

I am not running.

Just a few more steps till I reach the end of the hall. Somehow, I know Snow waits behind it. The stench of the roses grows stronger with every inch. I level my bow and pull back the string. I may have seconds to react.

I take a breath. I am the Mockingjay. Nothing shakes me.

But as I butt open the door with my shoulder, I see something that makes my bowstring go slack. The arrow falls to the ground, soundless in the thick carpet.

Gale.

Gale, bloodied and bruised. Farmiliar lash marks cut into his flesh.

I let out a cry of shock and fury. Gale's eyes open for a moment, but then he succumbs to the pain and closes them again.

I whirl. And sure enough, President Snow is standing there with a rose in his lapel and his puffy lips curled in a smile. "Surprise."

"What did you do to him?" I yell, eyes ablaze.

He laughs at my anger. "I think the question you mean to ask is what _will_ I do to him?"

I reload my bow, but not before I spot two guards in the shadows beside Gale's unmoving body. I shoot at Snow, and they kill him.

"That's right," says Snow. "Every wrong move you made in the past will be taken out on your beloved Gale. I broke you with Peeta. But it wasn't enough to stop you, now was it? But now I've got your best friend. And your lover. Let's not pretend he's your cousin – we agreed not to lie to each other, remember?"

I seethe silently. "Let. Gale. Go!"

"Or what?" Snow smirks.

But that's the problem. There is no "or what".

"So I shall break you again. No, I shatter you. And as I shatter you, I shatter the rebellion."

So eerily close to my own thoughts.

There's the crack of a whip and Gale cries out in pain. I make a wild lunge toward him, but Snow's guards hold me back. I struggle furiously, anything to get to Gale, but it is of no avail.

Hot tears are running down my face, and every one of Gale's screams hits me like physical pain. There is no morphling to shut it all out, just the horrible reality I have to watch unfold before my eyes.

This is much worse than what happened to Peeta. I have to watch this torture. And this time, it's not Peeta. It's Gale. My Gale.

He lies there screaming, unable to do anything but take the pain as the whip cracks again and again. His gray, District 13-issued uniform is dark with blood. I can't take it anymore. I know if this goes on any longer I might just pass the border into insanity. That's what Snow wants. He wants to break me, and then kill me in front of the rebellion, but not before he gets to show off how unhinged the Mockingjay really was.

Unfortunetly for him, I have a different agenda.

With a cry of something between hysteria and fury, I stamp on a guard's foot and hit another with an elbow to the stomach. They can't stop me. I'll do anything to save my Gale. I feel a new energy surge up in me, and I finally manage to break free of the guards.

"GALE! GALE, WAKE UP!"

I fling myself over him as the whip cracks again. I feel nothing, because of the wonderful Mockingjay suit Cinna designed for me. But then they are ripping at it, tearing away layers of body armor and cloth. Shredding it, shredding Cinna's last gift to me.

They resume the lashes, and now I have nothing to protect me but the black jumpsuit that was the base of Cinna's design. I don't think they care who gets tortured, though, because they let me lie over Gale and take what is rightfully mine. Between cries of shock and pain, I try to ask Gale if he's okay. He won't open his eyes.

So I lie over his body and take the pain. When I threw myself in front of the whip at 12, I got tiny serving of this agony. Now it is being dumped on me, bucket after bucket, the blood of the wounds I dealt and the people I killed in this war. It seems to go on for hours, and I cry and scream and shake Gale until I too am too weak with bloodloss to move.

Soon the guards leave, but Snow stays, perhaps to gloat.

"People of Panem, _that _is the fate of the rebels. The Mockingjay has lost her wings." The camera crew takes a close up of Snow's face, so that all of Panem could see his revoltingly triumphant smile.

I feel an elbow in my gut, triggering a bout of pain from my wounds. Gale! I'm about to yell out his name, but he gets a bloodied hand to my lips and smothers the sound. With his other, he gestures furiously towards something. A gun is lying a foot away from me, presumably dropped by one of the guards during their sadistic torture of the Mockingjay and her Gale.

"Here she lies broken."

But I'm not broken. I have one last hope. I outstretch my hand and make a shaky grab for the gun that is inches away from Snow's left foot. My fist closes on the stock.

"The Mockingjay – " His words stop mid sentence as I take a deep breath and pull the trigger.

Snow is knocked back a few yards and is convulsing, covered in blood. A smoking gun shakes in my hand. I did it. I've taken revenge. I've killed Snow.

I allow myself a sadistic smile.

But then, why don't I feel like this whole think is done? Because the war rages on?

I hand the gun over to Gale. He points it at the camera crew and nods toward me wordlessly. They seem to understand and turn the cameras to me.

I look up at them, manage a grin, and say the words with a grim finality.

"If we burn…you burn with us."

I pause in my message. I need to get this across before I die. "Snow is dead. Gale and I are…" I choke a little on my words. "…as good as. But even without us, the rebellion must go on. Remaining Capitol citizens, I ask that you surrender. I ask you help us put out this fire and rebuild Panem from its ashes. Make it a better place, a place where there is no Hunger Games. After all we've been through in this war, I think we all know what hopelessness feels like. Citizens of Panem, please help me. Please do what I cannot and ressurect our country."

I formed my fingers into the three finger salute and smiled my goodbye.

And we are left to die.

The camera crew are gone. They took Snow's body with them. But I hope what I did was enough to save Panem.

I haven't saved Gale Hawthorne, though.

I know we will die slowly, as the blood slowly seeps out of our bodies, but it gives us time alone together. This is the perfect way to die. With Gale beside me.

Because Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.

He helps me pull myself into a sitting position against the wall, and I assist him. Our fingers lace together. I lean my head against Gale's and say what I've been afraid to say all along. It can't wait. I have to tell him before we die.

"I love you."

He has that glint in his eyes. "I know, Catnip."

I laugh a little, remembering that time in the cabin by the lake. "I mean it."

His eyes soften and he smiles. "I love you too. And that's why I've got to say this:" He takes a deep breath. "Katniss Everdeen, my best friend and my soulmate …will you marry me?"

For a second, I am shocked. Then I register things and I break into a huge smile. "Yes! Of course! Yes! A thousand times yes!" And then it dawns on me and the grin fades away. "But we're going to die."

"Don't worry. I have everything here." And from within a pocket of his bloodstained uniform, he withdraws a little golden ring and a small, charred piece of bread. "I know we are supposed to build our first fire and all that, but this is the best I could do. We did toast it together, though. Back in the forests of 13. And I kept this little bit…"

"Just in case." So he could marry me, even if we were about it die. "You think of everything, don't you?" I say with a wry smile.

He smiles with me and slides the ring on my finder with those strong, delicate hands I trust.

Now that I think of it, I have something for him as well, even though it is not a ring. I remove my mockingjay pin and secure it gingerly over Gale's heart.

And then it's sealed. Gale and I are one, for the rest of our short lives.

We're both crying now, holding each other close. The pain from my wounds reminds me how perfect this could be if it really was forever. There is no thinking of the past, no dwelling on happy memories. We are stranded in the now.

But we are together, and that is all I can ask for.

When we finally break apart, we share the stale bread in comfortable silence.

"Catnip," Gale finally says. "I can't image a better wedding."

I laugh, though maybe he is serious. He starts to laugh as well, and suddenly we are in giggling hysterics, both a little cracked from our expieriences. We crack jokes and tell stories, and forget for a while that we are probably minutes away from death.

When we stop, our faces are an inch apart and we're staring into each other's eyes. But it isn't awkward. It's as though we're studying each other, drinking in our last moment together.

"I'm sorry," he says simply.

"For what?"

"Not volunteering to go into the arena with you. I should have taken Peeta's place and protected you when I had the chance."

"Don't be stupid. What about our promise? You were supposed to take care of my family. Which is what you did."

Gale shrugs. "Our families would have supported each other. And I could have supported you."

"One of us would have had to die."

"Not necessarily. The berry stunt didn't come from Peeta."

"Well, you're here for me now. I'm glad I'm spending my last moments with you."

"Me too. I love you, Catnip."

"I love you too, Gale." I smile a little through my tears. This time it isn't hard to say.

"I want to stay with you for the rest of my life." His sincerity is blatant.

I can't help but burst out laughing. "Where am I supposed to go in the next ten minutes? So yeah, I'll stay with you."

He smiles and runs his fingers through my hair, tucking a knotted strand behind my ear. "Good."

And then he's kissing me. A gentle kiss, like nothing more than the wind caressing the tops of the trees, but to me it has a world of meaning. In this kiss is love. Apologies that have gone unspoken. Memories we shared.

I imagine us hunting together, sitting in that spot in the woods that was our place, the little rock ledge that overlooks a valley. The spot that isn't full unless both of us occupy it. Gale and I learning from each other, helping each other, protecting each other.

I think of Gale spinning me around in the little house by the lake, think of that first kiss we shared and didn't dare mention again. I think of what could have been.

This is the moment I know my love for Gale is real, and the connection I had with Peeta was nothing more than a close friendship. A friendship that might have become more if not for the boy who always remained somewhere at the back of my mind. Peeta's kisses have never made me feel like this.

When we finally break apart, I'm grinning and crying all at once, choking up. Gale doesn't let go of me, though we slowly slide down the wall and end up on the floor in a pool of our blood as we grow weak. Nothing is said. We watch each other until our eyes slide shut and we lie there, slipping away.

We are hanging from our nooses together on the Hanging Tree.

I will see my father. Prim. I smile through the darkness enfolding me. Cinna. Rue. Finnick. I will see them all. Gale as well. We'll be there together. Forever.

A word escapes Gale's lips. "Good…bye…."

I can't answer him. My lips won't move. I want to tell him it's not goodbye, just "see you later". I feel myself growing lighter, as though I'm floating away to a better place.

As I fade away, the mockingjays are singing Rue's song.

I wake in a hospital bed. I'm wrapped in bandages and my body throbs in pain. Needles protrude from my arm. One of my eyes is covered. Bandaged, I think.

I bring up my arm to feel it but it won't move. It's strapped down.

Prim's calling to me with desperate screams. "Katniss! Save me! Don't you love me? Katniss! I need you!"

I guess I've ended up in Hell. Maybe I've taken too many lives for this world to forgive. I start to thrash around like crazy, by the restraits on my arms and legs hold fast. My body erupts in a new bout of pain. This is how they've decided to torture me. They'll hold me here forever while my loved ones scream.

Rue is calling to me too. Finnick. Cinna as well.

All people I can't save.

My head smacks down and I'm out again.

This ordeal happens a couple more times. The physical pain seems lessened as time goes on, but maybe I'm just getting used to it. But the emotional pain just gets worse. I hear more screams. Peeta. My mother and father. Madge. Even Buttercup is yowling.

The fourth time I come to, I hear my name being called. It's Gale's voice.

I struggle furiously. "Gale! Come save me! Help! Where are you? Gale!"

A bemused voice cuts through my yelling. "I'm still here."

"Then come help me!" I scream. "They're torturing me!"

He's laughing now. "They're not torturing you. You're in the hospital. We're alive. Try to turn your head and you'll see me."

The screams subside. With a slight glimmer of hope, I turn my head slowly and painfully toward Gale's voice. And he really is there, in the bed next to me. His gray eyes are looking at me with that farmiliar glint. He too is restrained and covered in bandages. My mockingjay pin rests on his bedside table. I look at my hand. A tiny gold band circles my fourth finger.

So it wasn't a dream. But then shouldn't we be dead?

"What happened?" I ask.

Gale grins at me. "Peeta found us. I guess he knew where we were from that TV broadcast. He saved both our lives."

I feel a pang. Just another debt I owe Peeta Mellark, the boy with the bread. "He brought medics. They took us away, but we were both totally out of it. Everyone thought we were dead. But I think they got us just in time to save our lives."

I think of Prim, now. No one had the chance to save her life. Or Rue.

"You've been thrashing around for days. They keep having to sedate you, because your wounds keep reopening. The restraints are here so we don't mess up the healing."

"Oh," I say simply. "So I'm not in Hell, then."

Gale gives me a perplexed look, but I don't explain. I don't want him to know.

"What else happened? Is the rebellion over?"

He nods. "The Capitol surrendered. But we lost many during the final battle. Coin is dead too. Our new President is Paylor from District 8."

The news of Coin's demise makes me smile a little. I never really did like her.

"Let's get some rest," Gale says. "We need to heal up. Our wedding's in two days."

My prep team scurries around me, trying and failing to remake me to Beauty Base Zero. My body bears innumerable scars, though. And there's nothing they can do about my eye, which had been damaged beyond repair with a single strike from the whip. It's a gruesome sight to see, so they settle with a sparkling eyepatch that matches the colors of my dress.

I find it ridiculous, and laugh a little at myself as I think of pirates.

I wear Cinna's dress. Not one of the wedding dresses that the Capitol wanted me to wear, but the very dress he designed for my interview on the night Peeta proclaimed his love. The one that I did my very first twirl in, the one that sparkles with a thousand gems and makes me flicker like a flame.

I am Katniss, the girl on fire.

My mockingjay is pinned to the fabric. I have already given it to Gale, but now I'm to do it on live television. The whole of Panem has been awaiting my wedding. But this time, it's under my circumstances. I marry the person I truly love.

My prep team is crying as they send me off. The music starts, and Haymitch starts to walk me down the aisle. I try to be confident and strong, but I can't keep the nerves away. It's funny how getting married scares me so much more than bleeding to death.

When I spot Gale waiting for me, a big grin slides across my face and my nerves are suddenly gone. He smiles back and mouthes, "You look beautiful. I like the dress."

It's a quick ceremony, just like Gale and I wanted it to be. Haymitch gives me away, and I perform a little twirl for the crowd before Gale and I join hands.

We say our vows without the slightest hesitation. He slides the ring into my finger again, and I pin the mockingjay token to his suit. The crowd is cheering like wild now.

We kiss, but this time it's a happy kiss. A kiss that promises a future and not a goodbye.

But the party that follows is what really makes my day. There is food everywhere. No one will g hungry tonight. People dance, talk, joke – rebels and Capitol citizens alike. The atmosphere is lighthearted and fun. It speaks of a better time for Panem.

Clearly, a party is exactly what we all need. Gale and I can't keep the smiles off our faces all night, though so much has been lost that will never be regained. We dance and stuff our faces. We sit together on cushy sofas, watching the party around us.

Everyone seems to be having a good time. Even Rue's little siblings are smiling. The little girl that looks exactly like her is so graceful and birdlike it brings sudden tears to my eyes. Peeta is dancing with Annie, who seems a little happier than usual, and Johanna with a boy from her district. Haymitch stumbles around in a happy daze, finally able to get at liquor again.

The party goes on for hours. I think it was supposed to end already, but no one seems to want to leave. We're having too good of a time, and there's nothing to keep us from dancing all night.

But though it is our party, no one seems to notice Gale and I slip away through the doors and into the darkness.

"Right here," Gale tells the pilot, and we touch down in the forests of District 12. We step out of the helicopter, it turns, and it disappears into the distance.

No one knows we're here, save for the pilot and the lady who sold us the loaf of bread I carry. Gale and I walk quietly through the forest on the feet of skilled hunters, taking a path we must have walked hundreds of times.

Finally we reach it, the little spot in the rocks that is ours and only ours. Not mine and not his. Ours, because it is only truly filled when both of us sit side by side. Gale puts his arms around me and we shiver a little in the cold as we build our fire.

We toast our bread and share it in that little spot in the woods. And for once, I am truly and completely at peace. I'm complete. As corny as this sounds, we belong together.

Nothing will ever tear us apart.


End file.
